Sociology. Checking homework (creative level)

State educational state-financed organization
Average vocational education
Voronezh region
Guidelines for implementation practical tasks
for first year students in specialties
Rossosh 2015
Introduction
This workshop is an educational and methodological guide to the textbook “Social Studies” for students in educational institutions secondary vocational education. All tasks of the workshop are aimed at assimilation, repetition and consolidation of the knowledge gained from studying the textbook. Some tasks contain additional material, which allows you to broaden the horizons of students.
The workshop includes various types of tasks.
Tasks to establish correspondence between a concept and a definition.
In such tasks, definitions do not coincide with concepts. Each of the given concepts must be correlated with the proposed definition and, having discovered an error, find the only one that will correspond to this concept. Tasks can be completed by copying concepts and definitions that correspond to each other into a notebook in the same way as was done in the workshop (concept-definition), or you can arrange the answer in the form of a table, where the concept will be in one column and the definition in the other. Since the number of concepts-definitions in each paragraph is not the same, the evaluation criterion for this task can be indicated in shares of its completion. For example, everything was done correctly - the rating is “excellent”, 90% is “good”, 70% is “satisfactory”, 50% is “unsatisfactory”.
Tasks to fill in missing concepts.
In these tasks, some concepts are excluded from the logical series. The student must complete them based on the concepts that he knows. The assessment is given in the same way as the criterion specified for tasks to establish correspondence between a concept and a definition.
Tasks to correct errors in definitions.
The assignments contain incorrect statements. You need to find suitable material in the textbook and correct the error based on it. Assignments can be completed in writing, by copying the correct version from the textbook, or orally. The assessment is given in the same way as the criterion specified for tasks to establish correspondence between a concept and a definition.
Tasks for filling out tables. Tables are filled in completely or only missing columns. The evaluation criterion is the correctness and completeness of filling out the table columns.

Tasks for drawing up diagrams.
The diagrams are drawn up on the basis of the proposed concepts, the relationship between which must be traced in the text of the textbook. According to the example, the diagrams can be horizontal and vertical. The assessment of drawing up a diagram depends on whether all the proposed concepts are involved and whether the relationship between them is correctly established.

Tasks for working with statements of thinkers, scientists, and legal documents.
After carefully reading the given quotes, you need to answer the questions formulated in the task. IN in this case The correctness and completeness of the answers are assessed.
The whole range of tasks will allow you to more fully assimilate the textbook material on this topic and better navigate the field of social science.
Main part
Chapter 1. Society
1.1.What is society

Society is the living together of people in one place while collectively solving communal issues.
A country is a group of people formed on the basis of common territory, economic ties, language and culture, aware of its internal unity and difference from similar entities.
Community life is a part of the material world isolated from nature with the entire set of historically established forms of joint activity of people; a set of relationships between people that develop in the process of life.
State is a defined territory that has state affiliation.
A nation is a political organization that governs the population of a certain territory.
Marriage and family relations are relations in the process of production and distribution of material goods.
Industrial relations are relations between different social groups (for example, rich and poor).
Social relations are relationships that arise in the process of managing society and the struggle for power.
Interethnic relationship-system connections through which society acquires integrity and stability.
Political relations are relations between representatives of different nations.
Social relations are personal relationships associated with the birth and upbringing of children.

American sociologist E. Shiles identified the following characteristics of society:
…………………….;
marriages are concluded between representatives of this association;
is replenished by the children of representatives of this association;
…………………….;
……………………..;
has its own control system;
………………………;
unites him general system values ​​(their customs, traditions, etc.) that find expression in a particular culture.
2.Varieties public relations are:
relations of production
…………………………………………………;
…………………………………………………;
interethnic relations;
……………………………………………………
3. The structure of society is:
…………………………………………………….;
social communities;
…………………………………………………….;
……………………………………………………..
4. The following social institutions are distinguished in society:
………………………………………………………
political;
……………………………………………………..
spiritual.
Task 3. Correct the errors in the definitions of the concept below
"society".
Society is the product of people spending time together.
Society is a biological species isolated from nature with the entire set of predetermined forms of joint activity of people.
Society is a certain group of people united to jointly perform some kind of work activity.
Society is a product of material exchange between people, a certain organization of their lives, including diverse economic ties and relationships between them.
Society is the entire process of historical development of mankind.
Society is a political and legal organization of a given country that has a certain structure.
Society is a collection of individuals who have a common interest, on the basis of which their relationships are built, regulated by non-binding rules of behavior (norms), supported, but not protected by government authorities.
Task 4. Read the statements below. Draw a conclusion about the interaction between society and people.
Marcus Aurelius about society and man: “You live in it, by it and for it.”
L.N. Tolstoy: “Man is unthinkable outside of society.”
Seneca: “We are born to live together, our society is a vault of stones that would collapse if one did not support the other.”
E. Durkheim: “Society is the most powerful focus of physical and moral forces that exists in the world. Nowhere in nature is such a wealth of diverse materials found, concentrated to such a degree. It is not surprising, therefore, that a unique life emerges from society, which, reacting to the elements that compose it, transforms them and raises them to a higher form of existence.”
I. Herder: “Alone man is weak a being in unity with others is strong. The deep gaze of a friend, penetrating into the heart, the word of his advice, his consolation move apart and lift what is sitting low above him.”
K. Marx: “...Society is the complete essential unity of man with nature, the true resurrection of nature, the realized naturalism of man and the realized humanism of nature.” “...First of all, one should avoid again contrasting “society” as an abstraction with the individual. The individual is a social being. Therefore, every manifestation of his life, even if it does not appear in the direct form of the collective (...) is a manifestation and affirmation of social life.”
L. Feuerbach: “Communication ennobles and elevates; in society a person involuntarily, without any pretense, behaves differently than in solitude.”
Task 5. Read the judgment of one of the leading American sociologists, R. Mills. What meaning does the author give to the concepts of “society” and “institution”? What social institutions does Mills highlight? Give examples of the functioning of these institutions.
“By institution I understand the social form of a certain set of social roles. Institutions are classified according to the tasks they perform (religious, military, educational, etc.) and form an institutional order. The combination of institutional arrangements forms a social structure.
Society is a configuration of institutions that, in their functioning, limit the freedom of action of people. In modern society there are five institutional orders:
economic - institutions that organize economic activity
political - institutions of power;
family - institutions regulating sexual relations, birth and socialization of children
military - institutions that organize legal heritage;
religious - institutions that organize the collective veneration of gods"
2. 2.Society as a complex dynamic system

The spiritual sphere of society is a certain area of ​​social life, including the most stable forms of human interaction.
The social sphere of society is an area of ​​public life that includes relations in the field of production, exchange, distribution of material goods, as well as relations in the field of production, exchange, distribution of material goods, as well as property relations.
Permissions - the transition from manual labor to machine labor, from manufactory to factory.
The sphere of society is an area of ​​public life that includes a variety of relationships between different groups of society.
The economic sphere of society is an area of ​​public life associated with the concept of “power”, i.e. the ability of some groups of people and their representatives to influence other groups.
Obligations are a generally accepted, historically established rule of behavior, which was consolidated as a result of repeated repetition over a long time, became a habit and became a necessary life need of people.
Prohibitions are recommendations for certain behavior in the interests of the primitive race.
Industrial revolution - regulators of certain behavior in primitive society, aimed at ensuring public affairs - hunting, gathering, distribution.
The custom is a taboo, reinforced by the fear of religious retribution.
The political sphere of society is a certain area of ​​public life, which includes relationships that arise in the process of creation, development and transmission of spiritual values.

1. There are four spheres of society:
economic
……………………….;
political;
………………………..
2.The economic sphere of society includes relations in the area of:
…………………………;
…………………………;
distribution of material goods;
………………………….
3. With the development of tools of labor, the production of material goods was distributed among:
food production;
…………………………
4. In the history of primitive society, three social divisions of labor are known:…………………………..;
the emergence of crafts as an independent branch of production;
…………………………….
5.With the advent of the state, society is divided into:
……………………………..;
dependent population.
6.The ways of regulating relations in primitive society were:
……………………………..;
………………………………;
obligations;
……………………………….
7.Culture includes:
literature;
………………….;
architecture;
…………………..;
……………………;
religion;
…………………….

1. An important achievement of ancient people was the creation of the first tools, with the help of which it was possible to more efficiently obtain industrial goods.
2. Over time, primitive people, instead of gathering and hunting, began to engage in agriculture and cattle breeding. There is a transition from a producing economy to an appropriating one.
3. In primitive society, power came from the ruling elite of the clan and was of a public nature.
4. As tribal associations move and interact, territorial ties are replaced by tribal ones, neighborhood community transforms into generic.
5. The emergence of surpluses led to the fact that prisoners were no longer killed, turning them into hired workers.
6. For many centuries, science determined people’s attitude towards the world around them, and only in modern times does religion replace the scientific worldview.
Task 4. Arrange the characteristics of the social division of labor in chronological order.
1. The emergence of traders (merchants) as a special group of the population.
2. The division of society into farmers and cattle breeders.
3. Isolation of craft into an independent branch of production.
Task 5. Fill in the blanks in the table.
Tribal community Neighborhood community
1. Presence of consanguinity 1.
2. 2. Segregation of property of individual families
3.Communal ownership of land; joint cultivation of land 3. Communal ownership of land; distribution of land for use between families
4. Absence of conditions for the emergence of private property and inequality
4.
Task 6.Schematically depict the components of the concept of “culture” in the broad and narrow sense.
Task 7. Eliminate the unnecessary concept and explain what unites the remaining concepts.
Production, distribution; custom; consumption; exchange.
3.3.Human nature
Task 1. Establish a correspondence between the concept and definition.
Anthropogenesis is a being of the biological species Homo sapiens (reasonable man), which is a product of biological evolution.
Exogamy is the formation of a person.
Language is the formation of society.
Sociogenesis is marriage ties within a group of individuals.
Endogamy is marriage outside of a given human herd.
Neolithic revolution - ideas about the origin of a tribe from a common ancestor, in most cases from an animal.
Totemism is the process of transmitting information using sounds combined into semantic speech structures.
Man - the transition from gathering and hunting to agriculture and cattle breeding.
Sociologizing concept - theory, affirming the primacy of biological principles in man.
The biologizing concept is a theory that absolutizes the social principle in man.

Task 2. Complete the missing concepts.
1. Anthroposociogenesis combines two processes:
anthropogenesis - the formation of man.
……………………………………………………………
2. Marriage ties, depending on how they are carried out - within one group of individuals or outside it, are called:
endogamy;
…………………
3. Concepts that consider the primacy of either biological or social principles in man are called:
biologization;
…………………………….
4. Biologization concepts are:
……………………………;
fascism;
…………………………….
Task 3. Correct the errors in the sentences.
1. Man, unlike animals, cannot vary his behavior in accordance with specific conditions and cannot adapt to them.
2. A person can live separately, without interaction with other people.
3.The production of tools did not contribute to the decomposition of the instinctive basis of human behavior and the emergence of abstract thinking.
4. Human behavior comes down only to the instinct of self-preservation, since self-restraint and self-sacrifice for the benefit of other people are not typical for him.
5. With the completion of anthropogenesis, society ceases to change; on the contrary, the process of human development continues to this day.
6. Biologization concepts consider all manifestations of the biological in a person, including his individuality, to be unimportant.
7. The biological and social exist separately in a person.
Task 4. Read the statements. What meaning do the authors give to the concept of “person”? What human qualities do they consider most significant? To which concept - biologizing or sociologizing - can each of the statements be attributed? How is man different from animals?
Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things that exist, that they exist, and non-existent, that they do not exist.”
A.N. Radishchev: “Only then will you become a person when you learn to see a person in another.”
M.Yu. Lermontov: “The same empty person who is completely filled with himself.”
I. Kant: “Humanity is the ability to participate in the fate of other people.”
E. Mezhelaitis: “Becoming a human being is a big job.”
V.G. Belinsky: “It’s good to be a scientist, poet, warrior, legislator, etc., but it’s bad not to be a human being.”
A.S. Makarenko: “A person should have a single specialty - he should be big man, a real person. If you can understand this requirement, “everywhere will be interesting for you and everywhere you can give something valuable in life.”
V.A. Sukhomlinsky: “Let the eyes of your soul always be wide open to other people’s grief and joy, deeds and worries - only then can you become a real person.”
I.V. Goethe: “People, with all their shortcomings, remain the most worthy creatures in the world.”
K.G. Paustovsky: “A person must be smart, simple, fair, brave and kind. Only then does he have the right to bear this high title of man.”
Charles Darwin: “Insights of conscience in connection with repentance and a sense of duty are the most important difference between man and animal.”
W. Hazlitt: “Man is the only animal in the world capable of laughing and crying, for of all living creatures only man is given the ability to see the difference between what is and what could be.”
Novalis: “Becoming a person is an art.”
Task 5. Read the text. What, according to the author, is the difference between humans and animals? What factors influence the development of human thinking? Why does the author believe that the process of the formation of thinking cannot be considered complete?
“Let us assume for a moment (for better understanding) that it is thinking distinguishing feature person. Let us remember: man is a “reasonable animal”. In other words, to be a person, as the brilliant Descartes teaches, means to be a thinking thing. Then the conclusion is inevitable: a person, once and for all endowed with thinking, undoubtedly possesses it as an integral, innate quality, that is, he is sure that he is a human like a fish is sure that it is a fish. But this is the deepest misconception. A person is never sure that he is able to think correctly (real thought is always adequate). I repeat, he always doubts his rightness, the adequacy of his thinking. That is why it can be categorically stated that, unlike all other creatures, a person is never convinced and cannot be convinced that he is a man (just as a tiger has no doubt that he is a tiger, and a fish is sure that he is a fish)
So, thinking was not given to man. The truth (which I, without being able to fully substantiate, am only stating) is that thinking was created gradually, little by little, formed thanks to education, culture, persistent exercise, discipline, in a word, at the cost of incredible efforts made over thousands of years. Moreover, in no case can this creative work be considered completed” (H. Ortega y Gasset. Man and people) 4.4. Man as a spiritual being
Task 1. Read the statements below. How do they reveal the problem of the meaning of life? What do the authors' views have in common?
Seneca: “When a person does not know which pier he is heading towards, no wind will be favorable for him.”
L.N. Tolstoy “The Most short expression The meaning of life is this: the world is moving, improving; Man’s task is to participate in this movement, submitting to and contributing to it.” “Of all knowledge, the most necessary is knowledge of how to live well, that is, to live in such a way as to do as little evil as possible and as much good as possible.”
M. Gorky: “As a man, as a personality, the Russian writer stood illuminated by the bright light of selfless and passionate love for the great work of life - literature, for a people tired of work, for his sad land. He was an honest fighter, a great martyr for the sake of truth, a hero in work and a child in his attitude towards people, with a soul as transparent as a tear and bright as a star in the pale skies of Russia.”
Andrei Bolkonsky, hero of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”: “...It is necessary for everyone to know me, so that my life does not go on for me alone... so that it is reflected on everyone and so that they all live with me!”
O. Wilde: “The meaning of life is self-expression, to show one’s essence in its entirety - that’s what we live for.”
Stendhal: “To live well among people, you don’t have to live for yourself.”
Marcus Aurelius: “Live as if you now have to say goodbye to life, as if the time left to you is an unexpected gift.”
F. Brooks: “The essence of life is the pursuit of happiness, and optimism is only integral to reasonable person condition for such aspiration."
A. Schopenhauer: “There is no better consolation in old age than the knowledge that we managed to embody all the power of youth into creations that do not age.”
Omar Khayyam: “What God once measured out to us, friends,
You can't increase it and you can't decrease it.
Let's try to spend the cash wisely,
Don’t covet someone else’s property, don’t ask for a loan.”
St. Augustine: “There is no great merit in living long, not even in living forever; but great is the merit of the one who lives virtuously.”
Jalalledeen Rumi: “Do not look for our grave in the earth after death, look for it in the hearts of enlightened people.”
G. Mazzini: “Life has meaning as a task or duty.”
V.G. Belinsky: “If the whole purpose of our life consisted only in our personal happiness, and our personal happiness consisted only in love alone, then life would truly be a dark desert... But praise to eternal reason, praise to caring providence! There is also a great world of life for man, besides the inner world of the heart - the world of historical contemplation and social activity.”
Task 2. Read the statement. How the temporary nature of existence and irreversibility human existence related to the search for the meaning of life? How did you understand the last phrase of the quote?
“In the face of death - as the absolute and inevitable end awaiting us in the future, and as the limit of our capabilities - we must make the most of the time of life allotted to us, we have no right to miss a single one of the opportunities, the sum of which as a result makes our life truly complete sense.
Finitude and temporary character, therefore, are not just characteristic features of existence, but also help to make it meaningful. The meaning of human existence is based on the principle of irreversibility.
Life surpasses itself not in “length” - in the sense of self-reproduction, but in “height” - through the realization of values ​​- or in “breadth” - influencing society” (V.E. Frankl. General existential analysis). Task 3. Read the statement. What questions does the author raise? Why is his view so pessimistic? Can this opinion be considered fair? Why? How should you build your life so that there is no reason to regret the past?
M. Gorky: “You are lying in a grave, in a cramped coffin, and your poor life passes before you, spinning like a wheel. She moves painfully slowly and passes through everything - from the first conscious step to last minute your life. You will see everything that you hid from yourself during your life, all the lies and abomination of your existence, all your thoughts you will change your mind again, you will see every wrong step you took, your whole life will resume - all of it down to the second! And in order to intensify your torment, you will know that along that narrow and stupid road along which you walked, others are walking, pushing each other, and rushing, and lying... And you understand, you see clearly - they are all they do it only in order to learn over time how shameful it is to live such a vile, soulless life.”
Task 4. At all times, people have addressed the problem of death. Read the statements. Explain the authors' views on this problem. What are similar and different about them? Which author do you agree with most? Why?
Marcus Aurelius: “Everything you see will soon perish, and everyone who sees it perishing will soon perish himself. After death, both the long-lived and the one who died untimely will become equal.”
N.A. Dobrolyubov: “They say that my path of bold truth will someday lead me to destruction. This may very well be the case; but I won’t be able to die in vain.”
G. Heine: “In essence, it doesn’t matter what you die for; but if you die for something you love, then it’s so warm, betrayed death better than a cold, unfaithful life.”
I.V. Goethe “You can be afraid of death or not - it will come inevitably.”
M.F. Akhundov: “...It has been proven that deprivation of life as punishment for murder not only does not stop this kind of crime, but does not even reduce it.”
Novalis: “Death is the cessation of exchange between internal and external excitement, between the soul and the world... Death is the romanticizing beginning of our life.”
Basil of Caesarea: “For whom you want to live, for those you want to die, do not be afraid.”
St. Augustine: “The care of burial, the arrangement of the tomb, the pomp of the funeral - all this is rather a consolation for the living than a help for the dead”;
“Death is evil only because of what follows it.”
Abu Abdalah Rudaki: “We are all perishable, child, this is the course of the Universe.
We are like sparrows, and death awaits like a hawk.
And whether sooner or later, any flower will fade, -
Death will grind all creatures with his grater.”
Abu al-Ma'arri: "When the time comes,
Whether we want it or not,
Soul full of sins
He will go his own way."
Avicenna: “From black dust to celestial bodies
I unraveled the secrets of the wisest words and deeds.
I avoided deceit, untangled all the knots,
I just couldn’t unravel the knot of death.”
Ibrahim al-Husri: “Death is an arrow shot at you, and life is the moment that it reaches you.”
Omar Khayyam: “Since one cannot delay one’s own death,
Since from above the path is indicated for mortals,
Since eternal things cannot be molded from wax
There’s no point in crying about it, friends!”
F. Bacon: “I have thought a lot about death and find that this is the least from evil."
C. de la Salle: “We are born into the world as mortals,
At death from birth we are in power...
But you live as if there is no death,
And you will know what happiness is.”
J. Swift: “It is impossible to imagine that such a natural, necessary and universal phenomenon as death was intended by Heaven as a punishment for humanity.”
J. J. Rousseau: “He lies who claims that he is not afraid of death.”
D. Diderot: “If you are afraid of death, you will not do anything good; If you still die because of some stone in the bladder, from an attack of gout, or for an equally ridiculous reason, then it is better to die for some great cause.”
Task 5. Read the statement. Why does the author believe that there is no need to be afraid of death? What, in his opinion, differs in the views on death of the sage and the “People of the Crowd”?
Epicurus: “Accustom yourself to the idea that death has nothing to do with us. After all, everything good and bad lies in sensation, and death is the deprivation of sensation. Therefore, the correct knowledge that death has nothing to do with us makes the mortality of life delightful - not because it adds an unlimited amount of time to it, but because it takes away the thirst for immortality. And indeed, there is nothing terrible in life for someone who has realized with all his heart (fully convinced) that outside of life there is nothing terrible. Thus, the one who says that he is afraid of death is stupid, not because it will cause suffering when it comes, but because it causes suffering by the fact that it will come: after all, if something does not disturb the presence, then it is in vain to grieve when it is only still expected. Thus, the most terrible of evils, death, has nothing to do with us, since when we exist, death is not yet present; and when death is present, then we do not exist. Thus, death has no relation to either the living or the dead, since for some it does not exist, while for others it no longer exists.
Crowd people either avoid death as the greatest of evils, or crave it as a rest from the evils of life. And the sage does not shy away from life, but is not afraid of non-life, because life does not bother him, and non-life does not seem like some kind of evil. Just as he chooses not the most plentiful food, but the most pleasant, so he enjoys not the longest, but the most pleasant time.”
5.5.Activity - a way of existence of people
Task 1. Establish a correspondence between the concept and definition.
Activity is a person’s conscious and experienced dependence on the conditions of his existence.
The goal is a set of operations to transform the initial product into the final one.
A technological process is a mental model of the future result that the subject achieves in the course of its activities.
Needs are a manifestation of human activity in any area of ​​his existence.
Labor productivity - ways of influencing the object of labor.
Technology is a category that is expressed in the amount of products produced per unit of time.
Initiative is a type of work activity with a certain nature and purpose of work functions, for example: doctor, teacher, lawyer.
Qualification is the presence of special, more in-depth skills and knowledge in a given profession.
Profession - level of training, experience, knowledge in a given specialty.
Specialty: creative approach to completing tasks.
Task 2. Complete the missing concepts.
1.The structure of activity is:
……………………
an object;
…………………..
2. An important role in the implementation of activities is played by:
target;
facilities;
……………………
3. A. Maslow proposed the following classification of needs;
physiological needs;
…………………………..
social needs;
…………………………..
spiritual needs.
4. Practical activities are:
…………………………..
social.
5.Depending on the forms of activity, the following are distinguished:
labor activity;
……………………………………
………………………………….
creative activity;
…………………………………………
…………………………………….
teaching and other activities.
7.Depending on the result, work is divided into:
……………………………………
unproductive.
8.Labor activity, depending on its nature, goals, effort and energy, can be:
individual;
…………………………..
Task 3. Correct the errors in the sentences.
1. Productive work is more important than unproductive work.
2.With the development of science and technology, the advent of machines in industrial production mental labor was increasingly replaced by physical labor.
3. In modern society, the role of knowledge, qualifications, moral qualities is significantly reduced.
4. Satisfaction of needs is a means of work activity.
5. During the period of formation and development of industrial production, the worker began to be considered, along with machines, as an active subject of production; This approach excluded initiative in the performance of work duties.
Task 4. Read the statements. What aspects of behavior do the authors address?
F. de La Rochefoucauld: “You can give another reasonable advice, but you cannot teach him reasonable behavior.”
I.V. Goethe: “Behavior is a mirror in which everyone shows his face.”
William Thackeray: “Sow an action and you will reap a habit, sow a habit and you will reap a character, sow a character and you will reap a destiny.”
Task 5.Make a logical diagram using key concepts.
Activity; structure of activity, subject of activity, object of activity, tools of activity, goal, means, behavior, actions, motive, needs (primary, secondary), types of activity.
Task 6. As you know, activity is purposeful. What role do the authors of these statements assign to the goals of human activity? How are goals and means related?
M. Montaigne: “A noble goal ennobles activity in the name of this goal.”
G. Mourey: “He who wants does more than he who can.”
I.V. Goethe: “Difficulties increase as you approach the goal. But let everyone make his way like the stars calmly, not in a hurry, but constantly striving towards the intended goal.” “By mistaking the means for the end, people become disappointed in themselves and others; as a result of which nothing comes of all their activities or the opposite of what they strived for comes out.”
K. Marx: “A goal that requires wrong means is not a right goal.”
I. Schiller: “A person grows as his goals grow.”
G. Hegel: “The truth of a means lies in its adequacy to the end.”
F. Lassalle: “The goal can only be achieved when the means itself are already thoroughly imbued with the own nature of the goal.”
V.O. Klyuchevsky: “ Historical process is revealed in the phenomena of human life, news of which is preserved in historical monuments or sources. These phenomena are immensely diverse and relate to international relations, the external and internal life of individual peoples, the activities of individuals among one or another people. All these phenomena add up to the great struggle of life that humanity has waged and continues to wage, striving for the goals it has set for itself.”
Task 7. Read the statements. What importance do the authors attach to work activity? Why is work better than idleness? Does your attitude towards work coincide with the point of view of the authors of the statements?
Marcus Aurelius: “Work constantly, do not consider work to be a disaster or a burden for yourself, and do not desire praise or participation for yourself for it. The common good is what you should desire.”
Confucius: “What is difficult to do should be done with great perseverance.”
V.Ya.Bryusov: “We have to work! We need to do something! For work, life doesn’t wait.”
L.N. Tolstoy: “You can and should be ashamed not of any work, even the most unclean, but of only one thing: idle life.”
A. Schopenhauer: “It is difficult to find peace in idleness.”
L. de Vauvenart: “Idleness tires more than work.”
D.I. Mendeleev: “Work, find peace in work - you can’t find it in anything else! Pleasure will fly by for himself, work will leave a trace of long-lasting joy for others.”
I.P. Pavlov: “The most important thing in every business is to overcome the moment when you don’t want to work.”
M.G. Safir: “ Labor is the father hunger, the grandfather of digestion, the great-grandfather of health.”
B. Disraeli: “Industriousness is the soul of every business and the key to prosperity.”
T. Carlyle: “All work is noble, and only work is noble.”
L. van Beethoven: “There are no barriers for a person with talent and love of work.”
I.G. Herder: “Work is a healing balm, a source of virtue.”
I.V. Goethe: “Only one misfortune exists for a person... this is when he is taken possession of by an idea that has no influence on real life or distracting him from work.”
I. Kant: “Young man, love work; deny yourself pleasures - and not in order to give them up forever, but in order to have them in the future! Do not dull your sensitivity to them with premature pleasure.”
K. Marx: “If a person works only for himself, he can, perhaps, become a famous scientist, a great sage, an excellent poet, but he can never become a truly perfect and great person.”
Novalis: “The higher the culture, the higher the value of work.”
R. Browning: “It is man’s duty to work and, to the best of his ability, transform the earth into heaven.”

The term institute has many meanings. It came to European languages ​​from Latin: institutum - establishment, arrangement. Over time, it acquired two meanings: narrow technical - the name of specialized scientific and educational institutions and broad social - a set of legal norms in a certain range of social relations, for example, the institution of marriage, the institution of inheritance. In a narrow technical sense, we use the word “institute” in the name of any institutions. For example, the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a specific scientific institution; science is a social institution, a part of society, the totality of all specific institutions.

Sociologists, who borrowed this concept from legal scholars, endowed it with new content. However, in scientific literature Regarding institutions, as well as on other fundamental issues of sociology, it is not yet possible to find a unity of views. In sociology, there is not one, but many definitions of a social institution.

One of the first to give a detailed definition of a social institution was the famous American sociologist and economist T. Veblen. Although his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class” appeared in 1899, many of its provisions are not outdated to this day. He viewed the evolution of society as a process of natural selection of social institutions. By their nature, they represent habitual ways of responding to stimuli that are created by external changes.

Another American sociologist, C. Mills, understood an institution as the social form of a certain set of social roles. He classified institutions according to the tasks they performed (religious, military, educational, etc.), which form the institutional order.

P. Berger calls an institution a separate complex of social actions, for example, legal law, social class, marriage, institutionalized religion. The modern German sociologist, one of the founders of philosophical anthropology, A. Gehlen, interprets the institution as a regulatory institution that directs the actions of people in a certain direction, just as instincts guide the behavior of animals. In other words, institutions provide procedures for regulating people's behavior and encourage them to follow well-trodden paths that society deems desirable.

According to L. Bovier, a social institution is a system of cultural elements focused on satisfying a set of specific social needs or goals. The institution itself is formed by interacting individuals. A social institution is actually a culturally sanctioned way of performing a certain type of activity or a set of certain types of activities. The individual participates in the institution through a mechanism social statuses.

J. Bernard and L. Thompson interpret an institution as a set of norms and patterns of behavior. It is a complex configuration of customs, traditions, beliefs, attitudes, rules, regulations and laws that have a specific purpose and perform specific functions. Institutions are a set of norms or rules of behavior that apply only to people.

In modern sociological domestic literature, the concept of a social institution is also given central place. A social institution is defined as the main component of the social structure of society, integrating and coordinating many individual actions of people, streamlining social relations in certain spheres of public life. According to S. S. Frolov, “a social institution is an organized system of connections and social norms that unites significant public values and procedures that meet the basic needs of society.” According to M. S. Komarov, social institutions are “value-normative complexes through which people’s actions in vital spheres are directed and controlled - economics, politics, culture, family, etc.”

If we summarize all the variety of approaches outlined above, then a social institution is:

b role system, which also includes norms and statuses;

b a set of customs, traditions and rules of conduct;

b formal and informal organization;

b a set of norms and institutions regulating a certain sphere of social relations;

b is a separate complex of social actions.

Let us try to summarize these common features by giving them the following working definition: a social institution is a stable set of formal and informal rules, principles, norms, guidelines that regulate the interaction of people in a certain sphere of life and organize them into a system of roles and statuses. In other words, social institutions are large-scale associations of social statuses and roles. An institution, in addition, means a relatively stable and integrated set of symbols, beliefs, values, norms, roles and statuses that governs a specific area of ​​social life: family, religion, education, economics, management.

The role of social institutions in society is akin to the function of biological instincts in nature. It is known that a living creature adapts to its environment with the help of instincts - powerful survival tools forged by millions of years of evolution. They help him fight for existence and satisfy the most important needs of life. The function of instincts in human society performed by social institutions - powerful tools forged by thousands of years of cultural evolution. They also help a person fight for existence and survive successfully. But not to an individual, but to entire communities. It is not surprising that institutions appeared no earlier and no later than culture arose. Both of these devices perform similar functions - they help humanity adapt to the surrounding social reality.

Indeed, scientists often define culture precisely as the form and result of adaptation to the environment. According to Kees J. Hamelink, culture is the sum of all human efforts aimed at mastering the environment and creating the necessary material and intangible means for this. Sociologists say that the institutions typical of a given society reflect the cultural makeup of that society. Institutions are as different from each other as cultures. For example, the institution of marriage is different among different nations. It rests on original rites and ceremonies, norms and rules of behavior.

Communication institutions are part of cultural institutions. They are the organs through which society, through social structures, produces and distributes information expressed in symbols. Moreover, these institutions themselves are the result of society’s efforts aimed at adapting to the environment. Communication institutions are the main source of knowledge about accumulated experience expressed in symbols.

Social institutions help solve vital problems a large number people contacting them. For example, millions of people, having fallen in love, resort to the help of the institution of marriage and family, and when they fall ill, they resort to health care institutions, etc. Worried about establishing legal order in society, they create a state, government, courts, police, lawyers, etc.

At the same time, institutions act as instruments social control, since, thanks to their normative order, they stimulate people to obey and be disciplined. Therefore, an institution is understood as a set of norms and patterns of behavior.

At the dawn of history, promiscuity—promiscuous sexual relations—dominated in the human herd. He threatened the human race with genetic degeneration. Gradually, such relationships began to be limited by prohibitions. The first prohibition is the prohibition of incest. It prohibited sexual relations between blood relatives, say mother and son, brother and sister. Essentially, this is the first and most important type of social norms in history. Later other norms appeared. Humanity has learned to survive and adapt to life by organizing relationships using norms. This is how perhaps the earliest social institution arose among people - the institution of family and marriage. Passed on from generation to generation, norms of family and marital behavior, like other institutional norms, became a collective habit, custom, and tradition. They directed the way of life and way of thinking of people in a certain direction. Violators of these customs and traditions (in the language of sociology - deviants) faced severe punishment (sanctions).

The process of formation and development of social institutions is called institutionalization. Institutionalization is the development, definition and consolidation of social norms, rules, statuses and roles, bringing them into a system that is capable of satisfying some social need. In addition, institutionalization includes the internalization by members of society of these norms and statuses, that is, the transfer of external requirements to the level of the internal value system. Institutionalization is the replacement of spontaneous and experimental behavior with predictable behavior that is expected, modeled, and regulated.

Thus, the institutionalization of any science, say sociology, presupposes the development certain rules communication between scientists, the creation of a common terminological dictionary for them, without which effective communication is impossible. In addition, this process involves the publication state standards and regulations, the creation of research institutes, bureaus, services and laboratories (with their own charters), the opening of relevant faculties, departments, departments and courses at universities, colleges and schools for the training of professional specialists, the publication of journals, monographs and textbooks, etc. If a circle of like-minded people, having launched a wide campaign, attracted to its side many supporters seeking progressive changes in society, and then became legalized according to the established procedure, then they talk about the institutionalization of a specific political party. Thus, social institutions appear in society when large previously unplanned products of social life are transformed into completely planned mechanisms for the activity of a group of people.

Without institutionalization, modern society cannot exist. Thanks to it, disorderly quarrels and fights turn into highly formalized sports matches, disordered sex life into the institutions of family and marriage, spontaneous protest movements into mass political parties. Institutions speak out reference points public order, those whales on which rests social world.

Institutionalization is the ascent, strengthening of social practice to the level of an institution, legislative registration of status, its “overgrowth” with organizational infrastructure and material resources(for example, departments, personnel, magazines, etc.).

Institutionalization is opposed by an institutional crisis - a reverse process characterized by a decline in the authority of a given institution, for example the family, and a decrease in trust in it. The cause of the crisis is the inability of this institution to effectively perform its main functions, for example, the educational institution - to transfer the knowledge accumulated by society to people, the health care institution - to treat people, the family institution - to strengthen the bonds of marriage. Institutional norms exist, they are proclaimed, but are not observed by anyone. The consequence of such a crisis is a redistribution of the functions of institutions, i.e. placing them “on the shoulders” of others. For example, in the mid-80s, a crisis emerged in our country in secondary school; it began to poorly prepare graduates for university; tutors immediately appeared - an institution of intermediaries between applicants and the university. The crisis of political institutions is manifested in a decrease in public confidence in them. It is known that in transforming societies there is a growing mass distrust of citizens towards political parties and civil institutions in general. More than two-thirds of those surveyed in December 1998 did not trust virtually any institution. Two significant trends began to emerge: general political apathy and a retreat from political life, on the one hand, and increasing opportunities political parties attract citizens to your side through undemocratic methods, on the other.

An institutional crisis reveals some problems in the functioning mechanism of an institution and helps to get rid of them, and as a result, to better adapt to a changing reality. Without crises there is no development of an institution, just as there is no human life without illness. The Institute of Education in the United States experienced serious crises three times - in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when the country, in pursuit of countries that had gone ahead (first the USSR, and later Japan), tried to improve the level of academic knowledge of schoolchildren. The United States has not yet achieved its goal, and, nevertheless, has achieved a lot, since young people from all countries go to receive an American education, which is considered very prestigious.

In sociology, two processes are distinguished - the institution of norms (instituting a set of norms) and their institutionalization (institutionalizing). The institution of norms is understood as the formal adoption by parliament or other legislative body of new norms, regardless of how the population views them. Norms cannot be considered institutionalized until the majority of people accept them, and they, in turn, become something generally accepted and taken for granted. This acceptance is accomplished, as we mentioned, by internalization.

Since foreign, and after them, domestic sociologists adhere to different definitions of a social institution, it is quite natural that they understand it differently internal structure, i.e. a functionally interconnected system of supporting elements. Some people believe that the main thing in a social institution are statuses and roles, others are sure that we should talk primarily about the system of norms and regulations, others highlight the importance of models and patterns of behavior regulated by the mechanism of social control, etc. Despite a variety of points of view, all of them are essentially true, because they simply represent a different vision of the same thing. V.I. Lenin also wrote that depending on how you use a glass, it can be considered a vessel for water, a weapon of attack, a tool for catching flies, etc.

So it is in sociology. For example, J. Bernard and L. Thompson identify such elements of a social institution as:

b goals and objectives that relate to the explicit functions of the institution

l patterns, or rules, of behavior;

b symbolic features;

b utilitarian features;

b oral and written traditions.

G. Landberg, S. Schrag and O. Largen, revealing the element-by-element structure of a social institution, closely connect it with the functions performed by the institution (Table 1).

According to S.S. Frolov, it is more correct to talk not about the elements included in the structure of the institution, but about certain institutional features, i.e., features and properties common to a variety of institutions. There are five of them:

b attitudes and patterns of behavior (for example, affection, loyalty, responsibility and respect in the family, obedience, loyalty and subordination in the state);

b symbolic cultural signs (wedding ring, flag, coat of arms, cross, icons, etc.);

b utilitarian cultural features (family home, public buildings for the state, shops and factories for production, classrooms and libraries for education, temples for religion);

ь oral and written code (prohibitions, legal guarantees, laws, rules);

ь ideology ( romantic love in the family, democracy in the state, free trade in the economy, academic freedom in education, Orthodoxy or Catholicism in religion).

Functions and structural elements basic institutions of society

To the above list of institutional features, it is necessary to add a few more that describe not what is hidden inside institutions, but what is outside. More precisely, how a person perceives them. P. and B. Berger, based on the theory of social facts of E. Durkheim and based on the fact that the most important social facts should be considered social institutions, have developed a number of basic social characteristics that they should have. Let's take a quick look at these characteristics.

Institutions are perceived by individuals as external reality. In other words, an institution for any individual person is something external, existing separately from the reality of thoughts, feelings or fantasies of the individual himself. According to this characterization, the institution has similarities with other entities" of external reality - even trees, tables and telephones - each of which is located outside the individual. He cannot, for example, wish the tree to disappear. The same applies to the institute.

Institutions are perceived by the individual as an objective reality. In fact, this repeats the previous characteristic in a slightly different form, but does not completely coincide with it. Something is objectively real when any person agrees that it really exists, and outside and independently of his consciousness and what is given to him in his sensations.

Institutions have coercive power. To some extent, this characteristic is implied by the previous two: the fundamental power of an institution over the individual consists precisely in the fact that the institution exists objectively and the individual cannot wish it to disappear at his will or whim. Whether we like it or not, voluntarily or against our wishes, consciously or unconsciously, we are still forced to follow the instructions and rules that make up the content of almost any of the social institutions within which our lives take place. Otherwise, negative sanctions may occur.

Institutions have moral authority. Institutions do not simply maintain themselves through coercive force. They proclaim their right to legitimation - that is, they reserve the right not only to punish the violator in some way, but also to impose moral censure on him. Of course, institutions differ in the degree of their moral force. These variations are usually expressed in the degree of punishment imposed on the offender. In extreme cases, the state can take his life; neighbors or co-workers may boycott him. In both cases, the punishment is accompanied by a sense of indignant justice among those members of society who are involved in it.

Institutions have a quality of historicity. In almost all cases experienced by an individual, the institution already existed before he was born, and will exist after he dies. The meanings embodied in the institution have been accumulated over time by a myriad of individuals whose names and faces will never be recovered from the past.

Social characteristics of youth. Youth is a socio-demographic group, identified on the basis of age parameters, characteristics of social status and socio-psychological properties. IN different countries, in different social strata the point of view on the processes and indicators of personal maturation is not the same. In this regard, the age limits of youth are not strictly unambiguous and are determined by different researchers ranging from 14-16 years to 25-30 or even 35 years. As a rule, this period of a person’s life is associated with the beginning of independent labor activity, gaining financial independence, civil and political rights. In addition, some scientists also highlight such signs as marriage and the birth of the first child.

The age at which youth begins does not coincide with the age at which childhood ends, the duration of which, according to international documents - the Declaration and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is 18 years. Boys and girls in our country receive a passport

Youth

at the age of 16, and this means recognition by society of their certain civic maturity. Youth is an important phase, a stage in the human life cycle. During this period, a feeling of uniqueness and individuality appears. Based on young people’s awareness of their capabilities and aspirations, comprehension of previous experience, an internal position is formed, and they are searching for their place in life.

In a person’s youth, a number of important events occur that influence changes in his status. This is not only getting a passport, but also graduating from school and serving in the army. In their young years, many people are actively searching for a profession that is meaningful to them, complete their education, establish themselves as specialists, and thereby determine their new position in society. Youth is called the time of formation. There is an opinion that until the age of 40 a person works for authority, for a name, and after 40 years, it is more likely that authority and name work for a person.

BRSM action

The formation of a young person’s personality is carried out under the influence of family, school, public organizations, informal associations and groups, the media, and work collectives. In general, young people today begin independent adult life much later than their peers in the past. This is due to the complication of work activity, which entails an extension of the required training periods.

In terms of socialization special place occupies the period of early adolescence (approximately 16-18 years). Many at this age are quite capable of making responsible decisions and are psychologically ready for this (for example, choosing friends, an educational institution), although full legal capacity occurs only at 18 years of age.

Acquiring full rights and responsibilities changes the status of a young person and significantly expands the range of his social roles. If the roles of a child and a teenager are mainly related to family (son/daughter, brother/sister, grandson/granddaughter), school (student/student), various forms leisure activities (member of a sports section, club

according to interests), then new ones appear in youth: worker, student; Roles in the family also change (husband, wife, mother, father). Friendship, love, and work experience help young people feel like truly adults for the first time. Ideally, they form the ability to be with another person in a relationship based on trust, support and care.

M. Chagall. Wedding (1914)

Difficulties in socializing young people can lead to psychological breakdowns. First of all, the gap between the desire to achieve as quickly as possible and the inability and reluctance to achieve goals through painstaking work has a negative impact. It’s good if there is willpower, hard work, patience, if a person is not spoiled.

There are often cases when modern young people, on the one hand, want to remain children for as long as possible, shifting worries about themselves, and even about their young family

on their parents, and on the other hand, they demand to be treated as adults and seek non-interference in their personal lives. Such behavior is called infantilism. Infantilism(from Latin infantilis - infantile, childish) - this is the preservation in adults of physical and mental traits characteristic of childhood. Such traits are emotional instability, immature judgment, irresponsibility, and capriciousness. This condition is sometimes a consequence of diseases suffered in early childhood, or any other reasons that led to excessive guardianship on the part of parents or loved ones. It is important to understand: if you consider yourself an adult, then take the trouble to actually be one and be fully responsible for yourself.

A person feels young as long as he is capable of creativity, can change, rebuild himself and at the same time be responsible for everything he has done. There are people who feel young not only in their mature years, but also in very old age. Doing what you love, being creative, healthy image life prolong youth. The feeling of youth is manifested both in a person’s appearance and behavior. “A person is only as old as he feels himself,” says a well-known aphorism.

Youth subculture. The desire to communicate with one's peers leads to the development of a specifically youth identity and lifestyle - a youth subculture. Under youth subculture is understood as the culture of a certain younger generation, characterized by a common lifestyle, behavior patterns, group norms and stereotypes. As a special subculture, it has its own goals, values, ideals, and illusions, which do not always and accurately replicate those dominant in adult society. It even has its own language.

The reasons for the formation of a youth subculture are the desire of people of this age to isolate themselves, primarily from their elders, the desire to belong to some community of peers, and the search for their own path in the adult world. Both formal and informal youth groups. Formal groups officially

Youth subculture

registered and often led by adults. The motives that encourage one to join one or another group, one or another youth trend are different. This is, first of all, a desire to gain mutual understanding and support, to feel stronger and more protected, and sometimes a desire to feel power over others.

There are many types of youth groups and associations. Some of them are characterized by aggressive initiative based on rather dubious or even asocial value orientations. Primitivism and flashy visual self-affirmation are also popular among some teenagers and young people. For some young people, external shocking is the most accessible form of self-affirmation.

Some groups of youth actively oppose themselves to the world of adults. A challenge to public opinion is most often expressed in the features of clothing and fashionable additions to it. Sometimes direct antisocial acts are committed (hooliganism, fights). In this case, society is faced with deviant behavior.

In the youth subculture, as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, in turn, smaller, but nevertheless strictly defined subcultures (punks, ravers, rockers, skins, football and music fans, etc.) are distinguished. At the same time, among young people, groups of social amateur activities aimed at constructive solutions to specific social problems are becoming increasingly authoritative. Examples include environmental movements, activities to revive and preserve cultural and historical heritage, and the provision of mutual support (soldiers who fought in hot spots, disabled people, etc.). The activities of volunteers who help people who are especially in dire need are also important.

Social mobility of youth. Young people are the most active, mobile and dynamic part of the population.

Social mobility called the transition of people from one social groups to others. There are horizontal and vertical mobility. Horizontal mobility- this is the transition of a person to another social group without changing social status, for example, divorce and the formation of a new family, a transition to work in the same position from one enterprise to another. Vertical mobility associated with moving up or down the steps of the social ladder. This, for example, is a promotion or, conversely, a demotion, or even loss of a job. Self employed he can turn from a small owner into the owner of a reputable company, but he can also go bankrupt.

In modern society, the intensity of the processes of horizontal and vertical mobility is increasing sharply. The reason for this is the dynamism of social life, rapid transformations in the economy, the emergence of new professions and types of activity and the curtailment, even disappearance, of many old, once quite respectable industries and corresponding jobs.

Today, a young person entering an independent life must be prepared for the fact that he may have to relearn, master new activities, constantly

but improve your skills in order to be in demand on the labor market. Many young people will need to consider options for moving to another city or changing careers to work in a rural area. The fact is that young people often lose in competition with qualified and experienced older workers who already have a good reputation. It is no coincidence that in many countries the unemployment rate among young people is particularly high.

At the same time, on the side of young people is the speed of reaction to changes occurring in the labor market. It is easier for young people to master new professions generated by scientific and technological progress. They make the decision to move to a new place of work and residence, start a business, undergo retraining, etc. more easily than older people.

The acceleration of the pace of social life entails the transformation of young people into active subjects of the economy and culture. Youth activity is clearly manifested in the sphere of politics, since everything that happens political processes directly or indirectly affect her life and position in society. Society and its power structures focus on youth as the most promising age category in terms of pursuing a social and professional career.

Young people are largely the way society has raised them. At the same time, she, as a rule, has her own common sense, the intention to receive a quality education, and the desire to work for the benefit of herself and others.

Questions and tasks

1 . What factors influence the determination of the age limits of youth? Why does the age at which youth begins not coincide with the age at which childhood ends? 2. What is the contradictory nature of the socialization of young people? 3. What, in your opinion, is the role of youth in the development of modern society? 4. Create a verbal portrait of a typical young man in our country. Outline his life plans, mastered social roles, etc. Think about what qualities you personally lack.

Workshop

1. Professor D. Bolz (USA) writes: “In high school I taught sociological subjects: history, political science, psychology, sociology and international relations.” In what sense is the word “sociology” used here? How is sociology defined today?

2. Conflicts, depending on who their subjects are, can be divided into:

On intrapersonal (between the conscious and unconscious desires of the individual, between the demands of conscience and the desire for pleasure, between instinctive urges and the norms of culture and morality);

Interpersonal (between two or more individuals who are at war with each other due to competition for the possession of vital resources in the form of property, power, position, prestige, etc.);

Intragroup and intergroup (occur both within a social group and between different groups due to the struggle of individuals and their communities for Better conditions and a higher degree of remuneration for activities in the group - industrial, political, sports, etc.);

Ethnonational (occurs in cases where the interests and life attitudes of one ethnic group or nation are infringed upon or suppressed by the state, representatives of other nations or other social communities);

International (arise between peoples due to a clash of economic, territorial, ideological interests, etc.).

According to the scale and prevalence in sociology, conflicts are divided into local, regional, within one country, and global.

Give examples of these types of conflicts from history, literature, and the media.

3. Let's think: what professions do representatives
this should be developed to the greatest extent sociology
gical thinking and sociological vision of the world? Ina
In other words, who needs sociological the most?
knowledge? To do this, analyze some professions
(driver, teacher, salesman, miner, manager, pilot,
farmer, watchman, waiter, banker, magician, journalist,
border guard, plumber, cook, engineer) for two crits
riyam:

a) how often their representatives have to
communicate with people on duty;

b) who has professional or business success in the most
depends to a large extent on knowledge of human psychology and the mind
ability to solve social problems.

For convenience, divide these professions into three groups - with strong, medium and weak expression of the above characteristics.

4. How do you understand Mark Twain’s statement: “When
yes, I was 14 years old, my father was so stupid that I could hardly
tolerated it, but when I turned 21, I was
amazed at how old this man is over the past seven
Have you grown wiser in years?

What characteristics of the younger generation can be illustrated by this statement? Justify your answer.

5. Men and women building interpersonal relationships
relationships regarding family organization and joining
marriage, they go through several stages: prenuptial
relationship between potential spouses (love,
matchmaking, engagement); marriage; stage molo
milk of the family; the birth of children, the formation complete family;
stage mature family(children growing up, their socialization),
as well as stage family breakdown(for reasons of divorce or
death of one of the parents; aging, illness and death;
separation of children from parents, etc.).

Discuss the above diagram with your parents. What joys and difficulties of the stages they went through do they remember most? How does this relate to you?

6. Do you agree with the opinion that young people are better adapted to the conditions of modern Belarusian reality than representatives of older generations? Give examples.

7. Discuss which of the following criteria determine whether a young person has achieved adult status: economic independence, living separately from parents, marriage, participation in elections, the birth of a child, ability to answer before the law. What other criteria could you name as determining ones? Give reasons for your answer.

8. In L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” it is said: “Everything happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” How do you understand these words of the great writer?

9. Select statements from famous people about family that are close to you. Explain your choice.

10. It is known that any social phenomenon must
There are definitely two sides - positive and negative
body There are no one-sided phenomena. If you
found only negative, it means that you missed
or have not yet found a positive one.

For example, in the 60s. both in our country and abroad, hippies were viewed primarily as a negative phenomenon. Years passed, and it turned out that it was they who contributed to the awakening of environmental consciousness in society, which changed our world for the better.

Find the positive and negative sides the following phenomena:

Collectivization of the 30s. XX century;

Massivization of culture;

Perestroika, which took place in the USSR in the late 80s - early 90s. XX century;

Relocation of people from village to city.

11. Compare two approaches to the problem of social
ideal.

A.V. Lunacharsky: “The meaning of our socialist work is to build a life that would make it possible to develop all the hidden qualities in a person

an opportunity that would make a person ten times smarter, happier, more beautiful and richer than he is today.”

J. Adams: " American dream- this is not just a dream of cars and high salaries, it is a dream of a social order in which every man and every woman can achieve the full height of which they are internally capable, and be recognized - as such, as they are , - from other people, regardless of the random circumstances of one’s birth and position.”

What are the similarities between the views of A.V. Lunacharsky and J. Adams? How can this similarity be explained? What differences in the positions of the authors can you identify? What is this connected with?

12. From the perspective of stratification theory, a society of races
looks like a system of social classes. Widely accepted
there is a so-called single-level stratification(at
dividing society along one basis) and multi-level
(when dividing society into two or more at the same time
signs, for example, signs of prestige, professional
nom, income level, education level, religious
accessories, etc.).

Using reference literature, build a diagram of the “Social structure of Belarusian society” in the 20s (30s, 80s). XX century Based on it, characterize the dynamics of the social structure of Belarusian society. What, in your opinion, was the reason for it?

13. According to the 1999 population census, out of 10,045 you
of thousands of residents of Belarus, 81% considered themselves to be
nationality - Belarusians; 19% of the population represent
more than 140 other nationalities and nationalities, including
including 11% (1,141,731 people) called themselves Russians,
3.9% (395,712 people) - Poles, 2.4% (237,015 people)
lovek) - Ukrainians, 0.3% (27,798 people) - Jews.
Throughout its centuries-old history, the foundation has been preserved
effective interaction between the culture of the titular nation and the cultural
ture of other national communities, primarily
Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Tatars.

Compare 1999 Census data with data from over early periods time. To do this, build

comparison table. Which historical events led to the changes you identified? Give examples of mutual assistance and cooperation between people of different nationalities in Belarus known to you.

14. Construct a structural diagram of “Types of social groups.” Concretize it with examples.

1. Russian and American sociologist P. Sorokin believes that social space is a kind of universe consisting of the population of the Earth. Where there are no human individuals, or where only one person lives, there is no social space (or universe), since one individual cannot have any relationship with others. It can only be in geometric, but not in social space. Accordingly, to determine the position of a person or any social phenomenon in social space means to determine his relationship to other people and others. social phenomena, taken as such reference points. The very choice of reference points depends on us: they can be individual people, groups or aggregates of groups.

To determine social status person, you need to know him Family status, citizenship, nationality, attitude to religion, profession, affiliation with political parties, economic status, its origin, etc. But that’s not all. Since there are completely different positions within the same group (for example, a king and an ordinary citizen within the same state), it is also necessary to know the position of a person within each of the main population groups. 58

1) social space is the population of the Earth;

2) social status is the totality of a person’s connections with all groups of the population, within each of these groups, i.e. with its members;

3) the position of a person in the social universe is determined by establishing these connections;

4) the totality of such groups, as well as the totality of positions within each of them, constitutes a system of social coordinates that makes it possible to determine the social position of any individual.

Based on the characteristics of P. Sorokin, determine the place of the Republic of Belarus in social space. What is your family's position in social space?

2. Read an excerpt from the work of the German sociologist R. Dahrendorf (b. 1929) “Elements of the Theory of Social Conflict.”

“The regulation of social conflicts is a decisive condition for reducing the intensity of almost all types of conflicts. Conflicts do not disappear through resolution; they do not necessarily become at once less intense, but to the extent that they can be regulated they become controlled, and their creative power is put to the service of the gradual development of social structures...

To do this, it is necessary that conflicts in general, as well as these individual contradictions, are recognized by all participants as inevitable and, moreover, as justified and expedient. Anyone who does not allow conflicts, viewing them as pathological deviations from an imaginary normal state, fails to cope with them. Submissive acceptance of the inevitability of conflicts is also not enough. Rather, it is necessary to realize the fruitful creative principle conflicts. This means that any intervention in conflicts must be limited to regulating their manifestations and that useless attempts to eliminate their causes must be abandoned.”

How does a sociologist assess the possibility of conflict regulation? Based on the texts of the paragraph and this document, formulate the basic principles of compromise

conflict resolution. Illustrate them with examples known to you. How do you understand the meaning of the last phrase of the text? What conclusion can be drawn from the text read to understand the role social conflict in the life of society?

3. Get acquainted with the reasoning of the Russian publicist I. S. Aksakov.

What is a people?.. A people consists of separate units, each having its own personal rational life, activity and freedom; each of them, taken separately, is not a people, but all together they constitute that integral phenomenon, that new person, which is called a people and in which all individual individuals disappear...

There is no society yet, but a state is already emerging over the people - who continue to live their immediate life. But doesn’t the state express the people’s self-awareness? No, it is only an external definition given to itself by the people; its activities, that is, the state, and the scope of its activities are purely external... So, we have: on the one hand, the people in their immediate existence; on the other hand, the state as an external definition of the people, borrowing its strength from the people - strengthening at their expense with the inactivity of their internal life, with their long-term stay in immediate existence; finally, between the state and the people is society, that is, the same people, but in its highest human meaning...”

How, according to I. S. Aksakov, do the state, people and society differ from each other? Why doesn’t the state express the entire national identity? 60

“What is included in societies? How
have already said, the most differentiation
roved ones consist not only of
families and kinship groups, but also
from associations, unions, firms and farms,
schools and universities, armies, churches
wei and sects, parties and numerous
other corporate bodies or organizations
Edward Shiels of organizations, which, in turn,

pail 1сзс7о; have boundaries defining a circle

members over whom the appropriate corporate authorities - parents, managers, chairmen, etc., etc. - exercise a certain measure of control. This also includes systems formally and informally organized along territorial lines - communities, villages, districts, cities, districts - all of which also have some features of society. Further, this includes unorganized collections of people within society - social classes or strata, occupations and professions, religions, language groups, which have a culture inherent more to those who have a certain status or occupy a certain position than to everyone else.

So, we are convinced that society is not just a collection of united people, primordial and cultural groups interacting and exchanging services with each other. All these groups form society by virtue of their existence under general power which exercises its control over the territory delineated by boundaries, maintains and enforces more or less general culture. It is these factors that transform a collection of relatively specialized initial corporate and cultural collectives into a society.”

What components, according to E. Shils, are included in society? Indicate which areas of society it relates to

Each of them. Select among the listed components those that are social institutions. Based on the text, prove that the author views society as a social system.

5. Yu. Simon in the book “Basic Research Methods in Social Science” (New York, 1969) writes:

“Psychology students often think that a laboratory experiment, during which cause-and-effect relationships are established between various aspects of the behavior of animals or people, exhausts all the possibilities of social research.

Many of those who are involved
specific economy, until now
are convinced that only statistical
analysis to provide a lens
a clear picture of price fluctuations and goods
mass, is the most reliable
Julian Simon's measure of economic behavior.

(1932-1998) in contrast to them, some anthropo-

Pologists continue to believe that the most reliable way of cognition remains participant observation, as a result of which we study the everyday interaction of people who create the social world in which we live.

At the same time, psychoanalysts are convinced of the infallibility of getting used to or feeling in inner world his patient as the only reliable method for studying human behavior and its intimate motives.

And marketing specialists do not recognize any other means than studying how the aspirations of a particular individual are related to his social characteristics and consumer behavior."

Indeed, each science that studies human behavior has developed its own scientific traditions and accumulated relevant empirical experience. And each of them, being one of the branches of social science, can be defined in terms of the method by which it primarily

enjoys. Although not only in this way. Sciences also differ in the range of problems they study.

Based on the content of the above passage, identify the main methods for studying human behavior. What can you learn about them through observation? What is an experiment? What research methods, in your opinion, will be required in order to determine: a) the population of a given country; b) people's readiness to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections; c) ways of interaction between miners during a strike; d) the speed at which rumors spread?

(-1916_ 1962) developments of people. In modern society

there are five institutional orders: 1) economic - institutions that organize economic activities; 2) political - institutions of power; 3) family - institutions regulating sexual relations, the birth and socialization of children; 4) military - institutions that organize legal heritage; 5) religious - institutions that organize collective veneration of the gods.”

What important institution is not named by R. Mills in the list of institutional orders?

7. Read the following judgment of one of the modern Russian publicists.

“Young people are beginning to be feared and hated, and are artificially contrasted with “adult” society. And this is fraught with serious social explosions. The crisis in Russian society has given rise to acute conflict generations, which is not limited to the traditional differences between “fathers” and “sons” in any society in their views on clothes and hairstyles, tastes in music, dancing and behavior. In Russia, it concerns the philosophical, ideological, spiritual foundations of the development of society and man, basic views on the economy and production, and the material life of society. The generation of “fathers” found themselves in a situation where there was practically no transfer of material and spiritual heritage to their successors. The social values ​​that the “fathers” lived by have, in the new historical situation, overwhelmingly lost their practical significance and, because of this, are not inherited by the “children”, since they are not suitable for them either for the present or for the future. future life. IN Russian society there is a generation gap, reflecting a break in gradualism, a break in historical development, a transition of society onto the rails of a fundamentally different system.”

What generation gap and conflict between “fathers” and “sons” are we talking about here? What is the essence of this phenomenon? Give reasons for your position.

Because of the biological ability to procreate, humans use their physical abilities to increase food resources.

The population is strictly limited by means of subsistence.

Population growth can only be stopped by counter causes, which boil down to moral abstinence, or by misfortunes (wars, epidemics, famine).

Malthus also comes to the conclusion that population grows in geometric progression, and means of subsistence - in arithmetic progression.

9. German sociologist K. Mannheim determined that
lodge is a kind of reserve
vom, coming to the fore,
when revival becomes necessary
dimmable to adapt to quickly
changing or qualitatively new
circumstances. Youth performing
has the function of an animating intermediary
social life. This parameter is uni
is universal and is not limited by either place or
time. Youth, according to Man-
Heima, neither progressive nor conservative
tive by nature, she is poten
tion, ready for any undertaking.

How do you understand the words of K. Manheim? Is this true for today's youth?

10. From the work of Russian sociologist O. S. Osinova
“Deviant behavior: good or evil?”:

“The form of society’s response to one or another type of deviation should depend on what (in terms of generality) social norms are violated: universal, racial, class, group, etc. The following dependencies can be distinguished:

The higher the level (in terms of generality) of social norms and values ​​is violated, the more decisive the state’s actions should be. The highest value is natural human rights.

The lower the level of social norms that are violated, the more emphasis should be placed on informal measures of social control (social reward or blame, persuasion, etc.).

The more complex the social structure of a society, the more diverse the forms of social control should be.

The lower the level of social norms a person violates, the more tolerant the reaction to his actions should be.

The more democratic the society, the more emphasis should be placed not on external social control, but on internal personal self-control.”

Give your own examples of universal, racial, class, group norms. To what level of generality can the norms “do not steal”, “separate education for blacks and whites”, “solidarity of workers of all countries” be attributed? What does a higher or lower level of norm mean?

11. There are many different classifications of youth groups and associations. So, according to the nature of motivation for amateur performances, they are divided as follows:

Aggressive initiative, which is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values, based on the cult of persons;

Shocking initiative, which consists of calling aggression on yourself in order to be noticed;

Alternative initiative, consisting in the development of behavior patterns that contradict generally accepted norms;

Constructive social initiative aimed at solving specific social problems.

Social characteristics of youth. Youth is a socio-demographic group, identified on the basis of age parameters, characteristics of social status and socio-psychological properties. In different countries, in different social strata, the point of view on the processes and indicators of personal maturation is not the same. In this regard, the age limits of youth are not strictly unambiguous and are determined by different researchers ranging from 14–16 years to 25–30 or even 35 years. As a rule, this period of a person’s life is associated with the beginning of independent work, gaining financial independence from parents, civil and political rights. Some scientists add such signs as marriage and the birth of the first child.

Note that the age at which youth begins does not coincide with the age at which childhood ends, the duration of which is defined as 18 years and is enshrined in international documents such as the Declaration and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Boys and girls in our country receive a passport at the age of 16, and this means society recognizes their civic maturity. Youth is a specific phase, a stage in the human life cycle. During this period, a feeling of uniqueness and individuality appears. Based on young people’s awareness of their capabilities and aspirations, comprehension of previous experience, an internal position is formed, and they are searching for their place in life.

In youth a person experiences whole line important events influencing changes in its status. This is not only getting a passport, but also graduating from school and serving in the army. In their young years, many people are actively searching for a profession that is meaningful to them, completing their education, establishing themselves as specialists, and thereby determining their new position in society. Youth is called the time of formation. There is an opinion that up to 40 years of age a person works for authority, for a name, and after 40 years of age it is more likely that authority and name work for a person.

The formation of a young person’s personality is carried out under the influence of family, school, public organizations, informal associations and groups, the media, and work collectives. In general, young people today begin independent adult life much later than their peers in the past. This is due to the complication of work activity, which entails an extension of the required training periods.

In terms of socialization, the period of early adolescence occupies a special place. It includes boys and girls who are approximately 16–18 years old. Many at this age are quite capable of making responsible decisions and are psychologically ready for this (for example, choosing friends, an educational institution, etc.), although full legal capacity occurs only at 18 years of age.

Acquiring full rights and responsibilities changes the status of a young person and significantly expands the range of his social roles, which undergo significant changes in adolescence. If the roles of a child and teenager are mainly associated with the family (son/daughter, brother/sister, grandson/granddaughter), school (student/student), various forms of leisure activities (participant in the sports section, hobby group), then in youth new : employee, student, husband, wife, mother, father, etc. Friendship, love, work experience help young people feel like truly adults for the first time, ideally they form the ability to be with another person in a relationship based on trust, support and tenderness. However, difficulties in socializing young people can lead to psychological breakdowns. First of all, the gap between the desire to most likely achieve and the inability, reluctance to achieve goals through painstaking work has a negative impact. It’s good if there is willpower, hard work, patience, if a person is not spoiled.

There are often cases when modern young people, on the one hand, want to remain children for as long as possible, shifting worries about themselves, and even about their young family, to their parents, and on the other hand, they demand to be treated as adults, seek non-interference in their personal life. Such behavior is called infantilism. Infantilism(from Latin infantilis - infantile, childish) - this is the preservation in adults of physical and mental traits characteristic of childhood. Such traits are emotional instability, immature judgment, irresponsibility, and capriciousness. This condition is sometimes a consequence of diseases suffered in early childhood, or some other reasons that led to excessive guardianship on the part of parents or loved ones. But if you are already an adult, then take the trouble to actually be one and be fully responsible for yourself.

A person feels young as long as he is capable of creativity, can change, rebuild himself and at the same time be responsible for everything he has done. There are people who feel young not only in their mature years, but also in very old age. Youth prolongs doing what you love, which involves interest and creativity, as well as a healthy lifestyle. The feeling of youth is manifested both in appearance and in a person’s behavior. “A man is only as old as he feels,” says a well-known aphorism.

Youth subculture. The desire to communicate with one’s peers leads to the development of a specifically “youth” identity and lifestyle – a youth subculture. Under youth subculture refers to the culture of a certain young generation, characterized by a common lifestyle, behavior patterns, group norms and stereotypes. As a special subculture, it has its own goals, values, ideals, illusions, which do not always and accurately replicate those dominant in adult society; it even has its own language.

The reasons for the formation of a youth subculture are the desire of people of this age to isolate themselves, first of all, from their elders, the desire to belong to some community of peers, and the search for their own path in the “adult world.” Both formal and informal youth groups are emerging. Formal groups are officially registered and are often led by adults. The motives that encourage you to join one or another group, one or another youth movement, are different. This is, first of all, a desire to gain mutual understanding and support, to feel stronger and more protected; sometimes it is also a desire to feel power over others.

There are many types of youth groups and associations. Some of them are characterized by aggressive initiative based on rather dubious or even asocial value orientations. Primitivism and flashy visual self-affirmation are also popular among some teenagers and young people. For some young people, external shocking is often the most accessible form of self-affirmation.

Some groups actively oppose themselves to the adult world. A challenge to public opinion is most often expressed in the features of clothing and fashionable additions to it. Sometimes direct antisocial acts are committed (hooliganism, fights). In this case, society is faced with deviant behavior.

IN youth subculture how in a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, in turn, smaller, but nevertheless rigidly formed subcultures (punks, ravers, rockers, skins, football and music fans, etc.) stand out.

At the same time, among young people, amateur social groups aimed at constructive solutions to specific social problems are becoming increasingly authoritative. These include environmental movements, activities to revive and preserve cultural and historical heritage, providing mutual support (soldiers who fought in “hot spots”, disabled people, etc.); The activities of volunteers who help people who are especially in dire need are also important.

Social mobility of youth. Young people are the most active, mobile and dynamic part of the population.

Social mobility call the transition of people from one social group to another. In this case, a distinction is made between horizontal and vertical mobility. Horizontal mobility- this is the transition of a person to another social group without changing social status, for example, divorce and formation of a new family, transition to work in the same position from one enterprise to another, etc. Vertical mobility associated with moving up or down the steps of the social ladder. This, for example, is a promotion or, conversely, a demotion, or even loss of a job. A private entrepreneur can go from being a small owner to becoming the owner of a reputable company, but he can also go bankrupt.

In modern society, the intensity of the processes of horizontal and vertical mobility is increasing sharply. The reason for this is the dynamism of social life, rapid transformations in the economy, the emergence of new professions and types of activity and the curtailment, even disappearance, of many old, once quite respectable industries and corresponding jobs.

Today, a young person entering an independent life must be prepared for the fact that he may have to retrain, master new activities, and constantly improve his skills in order to be in demand in the labor market. Many young people will need to consider options for moving to another city or changing careers to work in a rural area. The fact is that young people often lose in competition with qualified and experienced older workers who already have a good reputation. It is no coincidence that in many countries youth unemployment rates are especially high.

At the same time, on the side of young people is the speed of reaction to changes taking place in the labor market. It is easier for young people to master new professions generated by scientific and technological progress. They make decisions more easily than older people to move to a new place of work and residence, start a business, undergo retraining, etc.

The acceleration of the pace of social life entails the transformation of youth into an active subject of economics, politics, and culture. Youth activity is also clearly manifested in the sphere of politics, since all ongoing political processes directly or indirectly affect the lives of young people and their position in society. Society and its power structures focus on young people as the most promising age category in terms of pursuing a social and professional career.

Young people are in many ways the way society has raised them. At the same time, she, as a rule, has her own common sense, the intention to receive a quality education, and the desire to work for the benefit of herself and others.

Questions and assignments.

1. What factors influence the determination of the age limits of youth? Why does the age at which youth begins not coincide with the age at which childhood ends?

2. What is the contradictory nature of the socialization of young people?

3. There are many different classifications of youth groups and associations. So, according to the nature of motivation for amateur performances, they are divided as follows:

· aggressive initiative, which is based on the most primitive ideas about the hierarchy of values, based on the cult of persons;

· shocking amateur performance, which consists of “challenging” aggression on oneself in order to be “noticed”;

· alternative initiative, consisting in the development of models of behavior that contradict generally accepted norms;

· constructive social initiative aimed at solving specific social problems.

What motives for joining youth groups and associations can be considered positive? Which of these types of amateur activities, in your opinion, are socially acceptable? Bring specific examples youth groups with these types of amateur activities.

4. What, in your opinion, is the role of youth in the development of modern society?

5. Create a verbal “portrait” of a typical young man in our country. Indicate his life plans, mastered social roles, etc. Think about what qualities you personally lack?

Study assignments for topic 1

1. Professor from Washington Denis Bolz (USA) writes:

“In high school, I taught social science subjects: history, political science, psychology, sociology and international relations.” In what sense is the word “sociology” used here? How is sociology defined today?

2. Depending on the subject, conflicts can be divided:

– intrapersonal (between the conscious and unconscious desires of the individual, between the demands of conscience and the desire for pleasure, between instinctive urges and the norms of culture and morality);

– interpersonal (between two or more individuals who are at war with each other due to competition for the possession of vital resources in the form of property, power, position, prestige, etc.);

– intragroup and intergroup (arise both within a social group and between different groups as a result of the struggle of individuals and their communities for better conditions and a higher degree of remuneration for activities in the group - industrial, political, sports, etc.);

– ethnonational (occurs in cases where the interests and life attitudes of one ethnic group or nation are infringed upon or suppressed by the state, representatives of other nations or other social communities);

– international (arise between peoples due to a clash of economic, territorial, ideological interests, etc.).

According to the scale and prevalence in sociology, conflicts are divided into local, regional, within one country, and global.

Give examples of these types of conflicts from history, literature, and the media.

3. Let's think about which professions should have the most developed sociological thinking and sociological vision of the world? In other words, who needs sociological knowledge the most? To do this, analyze the professions (driver, teacher, salesman, miner, manager, pilot, farmer, watchman, waiter, banker, magician, journalist, border guard, plumber, cook, engineer) according to two criteria:

a) how often their representatives have to communicate with people on duty;

b) whose professional or business success depends most on knowledge of human psychology and the ability to solve social problems.

For convenience, divide professions into three groups with strong, medium and weak expression of these characteristics.

4. How do you understand Mark Twain’s statement: “When I was 14 years old, my father was so stupid that I could hardly stand him, but when I turned 21, I was amazed at how much this old man had become wiser in the past seven years.” ?

What characteristics of the younger generation can be illustrated by this statement? Justify your answer.

5. Men and women, entering into interpersonal relationships regarding family organization and marriage, go through several stages: premarital relations between potential spouses (love, matchmaking, engagement); marriage; stage young family; the birth of children, the formation complete family; stage mature family(children growing up, their socialization); as well as the stage family breakdown(for reasons of divorce, or the death of one of the parents; aging, illness and death; separation of children from parents, etc.).

Discuss this scheme with your parents. At what stage do they see their family? What joys and difficulties of the stages they went through do they remember most? How does this relate to you?

6. Do you agree with the opinion that young people have better adapted to the conditions of modern Belarusian reality than representatives of older generations? Give examples.

7. Discuss which of the following criteria determine whether a young person has achieved adult status: economic independence, living separately from parents, marriage, participation in elections, the birth of a child, ability to answer before the law. Think about what other criteria you could name as determining ones. Give reasons for your answer.

8. In the novel by L.N. Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” is very subtly noted: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” How do you understand the words of the great writer?

9. Select statements from famous people about family that are close to you. Explain your choice.

10. It is known that any social phenomenon necessarily has two sides - positive and negative. There are no one-sided phenomena. If you only found the negative, it means that you have missed or have not yet found the positive.

For example, "hippies" were considered in the 60s. both in our country and abroad, mainly as a negative phenomenon. But years passed, and it turned out that it was they who awakened environmental consciousness in society, which changed our world for the better.

Find the positive and negative aspects of the following phenomena:

Collectivization of the 30s.

Massivization of culture

Gorbachev's perestroika.

Relocation of people from village to city.

Collapse of the USSR.

12. Compare two approaches to the problem of the social ideal.

A.V. Lunacharsky: “The meaning of our socialist work is to build a life that would make it possible to develop all the possibilities hidden in a person, which would make a person ten times smarter, happier, more beautiful and richer than today.”

J. Adams: “The American Dream is not just a dream of cars and high wages, it is a dream of a social order in which every man and every woman can reach the full height of which they are internally capable of achieving and be recognized – as such as they are – from other people, regardless of the accidental circumstances of their birth and position.”

13. From the perspective of stratification theory, society is viewed as a system of social layers. The so-called single-level stratification(when dividing society according to one criterion) and multi-level(when dividing society simultaneously according to two or more criteria, for example, based on prestige, professional, income level, level of education, religious affiliation, etc.).

Build a diagram: “The social structure of Belarusian society” in the 20s (30s, 80s). XX century Based on it, characterize the dynamics of the social structure of Belarusian society. What, in your opinion, was the reason for it?

14. According to the 1999 population census, out of 10,045,000 residents of Belarus, 81% of them classified themselves as the titular nationality - Belarusians. 19% of the population represents more than 140 nationalities and nationalities, including 11% (1,141,731 people) who called themselves Russians; 3.9% (395,712 people) – Poles; 2.4% (237,015 people) – Ukrainians; 0.3% (27,798 people) are Jews. Throughout its centuries-old history, there has been a stable interaction between the culture of the titular nation and the culture of other national communities, primarily Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Tatars.

Compare the 1999 census data with the results of previous censuses. To do this, build a comparison table. What historical events led to the changes you identified. Give examples of mutual assistance and cooperation of different nationalities in Belarus known to you.

15. Construct a structural diagram: “Types of social groups.” Concretize it with examples.

Documents and materials

1. P. Sorokin believes that social space is a kind of universe consisting of the population of the Earth. Where there are no human individuals, or where only one person lives, there is no social space (or universe), since one individual cannot have any relationship with others. It can only be in geometric, but not in social space. Accordingly, to determine the position of a person or any social phenomenon in social space means to determine his (their) relationship to other people and other social phenomena taken as such “reference points”. The very choice of “reference points” depends on us: they can be individual people, groups or aggregates of groups.

To determine a person’s social status, it is necessary to know his marital status, citizenship, nationality, attitude to religion, profession, affiliation with political parties, economic status, his origin, etc. But that’s not all. Since there are completely different positions within the same group (for example, a king and an ordinary citizen within the same state), it is also necessary to know the position of a person within each of the main population groups.

1) social space is the population of the Earth;

2) social position is the totality of his connections with all groups of the population, within each of these groups, that is, with its members;

3) the position of a person in the social universe is determined by establishing these connections;

4) the totality of such groups, as well as the totality of positions within each of them, constitutes a system of social coordinates that makes it possible to determine the social position of any individual.

Based on P. Sorokin’s characteristics, determine the place of the Republic of Belarus in social space. What is your family's position in social space?

2. Read an excerpt from the work of the German sociologist R. Dahrendorf “Elements of the Theory of Social Conflict.”

The regulation of social conflicts is a decisive condition for reducing violent conflicts in almost all types of conflicts. Conflicts do not disappear through resolution; they do not necessarily become less intense at once, but to the extent that they can be regulated they become controlled, and their creative power is put to the service of the gradual development of social structures...

To do this, it is necessary that conflicts in general, as well as these individual contradictions, are recognized by all participants as inevitable, and moreover, as justified and expedient. Anyone who does not allow conflicts, viewing them as pathological deviations from an imaginary normal state, fails to cope with them. Submissive acceptance of the inevitability of conflicts is also not enough. Rather, it is necessary to recognize the fruitful creative principle of conflict. This means that any intervention in conflicts must be limited to regulating their manifestations and that useless attempts to eliminate their causes must be abandoned.

How does the author assess the possibility of conflict resolution? Based on the texts of the paragraph and the document, formulate the basic principles of a compromise resolution of the conflict. Illustrate them with examples known to you. How do you understand the meaning of the last phrase of the text? What conclusion can be drawn from the text read to understand the social conflict?

3. Get acquainted with the reasoning of I. S. Aksakov:

“Society, in our opinion, is the environment in which the conscious, mental activity of a certain people takes place, which is created by all the spiritual forces of the people, developing the people’s self-awareness. In other words; society is... a self-aware people.

What is a people?.. A people consists of separate units, each having its own personal rational life, activity and freedom; each of them, taken separately, is not a people, but all together they form that integral phenomenon, that new person, which is called a people and in which all individual individuals disappear...

There is no society yet, but a state is already emerging over the people - who continue to live immediate life. But doesn’t the state express the people’s self-awareness? No, it is only an external definition given to itself by the people; its activities, that is, the state, and the scope of its activities are purely external... And so we have: on the one hand, the people in their immediate existence; on the other hand, the state - as an external definition of the people, borrowing its strength from the people - strengthening at their expense during the inactivity of their internal life, during their long-term stay in immediate existence; finally, between the state and the people is society, that is, the same people, but in its highest human meaning...”

How, according to I. S. Aksakov, do the state, people and society differ from each other? Why doesn't the state express the people's consciousness?

4. From the work of modern American sociologist E. Schilze “Society and societies: a macrosociological approach.”

What is included in societies? As has already been said, the most differentiated of them consist not only of families and kinship groups, but also of associations, unions, firms and farms, schools and universities, armies, churches and sects, parties and numerous other corporate bodies or organizations which, in in turn, have boundaries defining the circle of members over which the corresponding corporate authorities - parents, managers, chairmen, etc., etc. - exercise a certain measure of control. It also includes systems formally and informally organized along territorial lines - communities, villages, districts, cities, districts - all of which also have some features of society. Further, it includes unorganized collections of people within a society - social classes or strata, occupations and professions, religions, linguistic groups - who have a culture inherent more to those who have a certain status or occupy a certain position than to everyone else.

So, we are convinced that society is not just a collection of united people, primordial and cultural groups interacting and exchanging services with each other. All these groups form a society by virtue of their existence under a common authority, which exercises its control over the territory delineated by borders, maintains and enforces a more or less common culture. It is these factors that transform a collection of relatively specialized initial corporate and cultural groups into a society.

What components, according to E. Shils, are included in society? Indicate which areas of society each of them belongs to. Select from the listed components those that are social institutions. Based on the text, prove that the author views society as a social system.

5. Julian Simon, in his book Basic Research Methods in Social Science (New York, 1969), writes:

“Psychology students often think that a laboratory experiment, during which cause-and-effect relationships are established between various aspects of the behavior of animals or people, exhausts all the possibilities of social research.

Many of those involved in specific economics are still convinced that only statistical analysis, which allows us to give an objective picture of price fluctuations and commodity supply, is the most reliable measure of economic behavior.

In contrast, some anthropologists continue to believe that the most reliable way of knowing remains participant observation, as a result of which we study the everyday interactions of people who create the social world in which we live.

At the same time, psychoanalysts are convinced of the infallibility of getting used to or feeling into the inner world of their patient as the only reliable method of studying human behavior and its intimate motives.

And marketing specialists do not recognize any other means than studying how the aspirations of a particular individual are related to his social characteristics and consumer behavior."

Indeed, each science that studies human behavior has developed its own scientific traditions and accumulated corresponding empirical experience. And each of them, being one of the branches of social science, can be defined in terms of the method that it primarily uses. Although not only in this way. Sciences also differ in the range of problems they study.

What are the main methods for studying people? What can you learn about them through observation? What is an experiment? What calculations are made when studying people's behavior and opinions? What research methods will be required to determine: a) the population of a given country; b) people's readiness to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections; c) ways of interaction between miners during a strike; d) the speed at which rumors spread?

6. Read the judgment of one of the leading American sociologists, Wright Mills:

“By institution I understand the social form of a certain set of social roles. Institutions are classified according to the tasks they perform (religious, military, educational, etc.) and form an institutional order. The combination of institutional arrangements forms a social structure.

Society is a configuration of institutions that, in their functioning, limit the freedom of action of people. In modern society, there are five institutional orders: 1) economic - institutions that organize economic activity; 2) political – institutions of power; 3) family - institutions regulating sexual relations, the birth and socialization of children; 4) military - institutions that organize legal heritage; 5) religious - institutions that organize collective veneration of the gods.”

What important institution is not named by R. Mills in the list of institutional orders?

7. Get acquainted with the following judgment:

“Young people are beginning to be feared and hated, and are artificially contrasted with “adult” society. And this is fraught with serious social explosions. The crisis in Russian society has given rise to an acute generational conflict, which is not limited to the traditional differences between “fathers” and “sons” in views on clothes and hairstyles, tastes in music, dancing and behavior. In Russia, it concerns the philosophical, ideological, spiritual foundations of the development of society and man, basic views on the economy and production, and the material life of society. The generation of “fathers” found themselves in a situation where there was practically no transfer of material and spiritual heritage to their successors. The social values ​​that the “fathers” lived by have, in the new historical situation, overwhelmingly lost their practical significance and, because of this, are not inherited by the “children”, since they are not suitable for them either for the present or for the future life. In Russian society there is a generational gap, reflecting a break in gradualism, a break in historical development, a transition of society onto the rails of a fundamentally different system.”

What generation gap and conflict between “fathers” and “children” are we talking about here? What is the essence of this phenomenon? Give reasons for your position.

8. E. Starikov in the article “Marginals, or Reflections on an old topic; “What’s happening to us?”, which was published in the Znamya magazine in 1985, writes:

...Marginal, simply put, is an “in-between” person. The classic figure of the marginal is a man who came from the village to the city in search of work: no longer a peasant, not yet a worker; the norms of the rural subculture have already been undermined, the urban subculture has not yet been assimilated. There is no unemployment in our country, but there are declassed representatives of workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia, and the administrative apparatus. What is their distinguishing feature? First of all, in the absence of a kind professional code honor. The physical impossibility of slacking is what distinguishes a professional professional worker.

Only under stable conditions - a permanent place of residence and work, a normal living environment, a strong family, an established system of social connections, in a word, the “rootedness” of the individual allows the development of a clear hierarchy of values, conscious group norms and interests. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “there is nothing in the world more precious than the bonds that connect man to man.” Tearing them means dehumanizing a person and destroying society. We must avoid everything that weakens human ties, unnecessary prohibitions, mass migrations, forced distributions, forced evictions, barbed fences - everything with which we are still so burdened to this day.

The rootless human “I” becomes blurred: motives of behavior begin to form in isolation from the values ​​of a stable group, that is, they are largely deprived of meaning. Morality ceases to rule actions, giving way to benefit, convenience, and sometimes physiological need (this is the explanation for “unmotivated” cruelty, “senseless” crimes).

In the depths of society there are two differently directed processes. Some marginalized people are quickly turning into lumpen people. Look who sells kvass, pies, bus tickets; ask who aspires to be butchers, bartenders, bottle handlers; not to mention the lawless hordes of speculators, black marketeers, and prostitutes. These are mostly young people. The path to the social bottom is usually irreversible. Another process – the process of recent rural residents taking root in cities – is in itself, in principle, even progressive. If, when moving to a city, a person can count on a decent, qualified job, then he turns from a marginal person into a full-fledged city resident.

How would you define the social essence of the marginalized and the sources of recruitment to their ranks? What does the process of rooting mean and how does being deprived of social roots differ from it? Why does a person’s value system change when he moves from a stable social environment to an unstable one? How did you understand the idea of ​​two differently directed processes? Can they be compared to upward and downward social mobility?

Because of man's biological ability to reproduce, his physical abilities are used to increase his food supply.

The population is strictly limited by means of subsistence.

Population growth can only be stopped by counter causes, which boil down to moral abstinence, or by misfortunes (wars, epidemics, famine).

Malthus also comes to the conclusion that population grows in geometric progression, and means of subsistence - in arithmetic progression.

Which of Malthus's views turned out to be prophetic? How can scientific and technological progress compensate for limited natural resources?

10. German sociologist Karl Mannheim (1893–1947) determined that youth are a kind of reserve that comes to the fore when such revitalization becomes necessary to adapt to rapidly changing or qualitatively new circumstances. Youth perform the function of animating mediators of social life. This parameter is universal and is not limited by either place or time. Youth, according to Mannheim, is neither progressive nor conservative by nature; it is potential, ready for any undertaking.

How do you understand Mannheim's words? Is this true for today's youth?

11. From the work of Russian sociologist O. S. Osinova “Deviant behavior: good or evil?”

The form of society's response to this or that type of deviation should depend on what (in terms of generality) social norms are violated; universal, racial, class, group, etc. The following dependencies can be distinguished:

– The higher the level (in terms of generality) of social norms and values ​​is violated, the more decisive the state’s actions should be. The highest value is natural human rights.

The term institute has many meanings. It came to European languages ​​from Latin: shzShMshp - establishment, device. Over time, it acquired two meanings: a narrow technical one - the name of specialized scientific and educational institutions and a broad social one - a set of rules of law in a certain circle of social relations, for example, the institution of marriage, the institution of inheritance. In a narrow technical sense, we use the word “institute” in the name of any institutions. For example, the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a specific scientific institution; science is a social institution, a part of society, the totality of all specific institutions.

Sociologists, who borrowed this concept from legal scholars, endowed it with new content. However, in the scientific literature on institutions, as on other fundamental issues of sociology, it is not yet possible to find a unity of views. In sociology, there is not one, but many definitions of a social institution.

One of the first to give a detailed definition of a social institution was the famous American sociologist and economist T. Veblen. Although his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class” appeared in 1899, many of its provisions are not outdated to this day. He viewed the evolution of society as a process of natural selection of social institutions. By their nature, they represent habitual ways of responding to stimuli that are created by external changes 43.

Another American sociologist, C. Mills, understood an institution as the social form of a certain set of social roles. He classified institutions according to the tasks they performed (religious, military, educational, etc.), which form the institutional order.

P. Berger calls an institution a separate complex of social actions, for example, legal law, social class, marriage, institutionalized religion44. The modern German sociologist, one of the founders of philosophical anthropology, A. Gehlen, interprets the institution as a regulatory institution that directs the actions of people in a certain direction, just as instincts guide the behavior of animals. In other words, institutions provide procedures for regulating people's behavior and encourage them to follow the beaten paths that society considers desirable45.

According to L. Bovier, a social institution is a system of cultural elements aimed at satisfying a set of specific social needs or goals. The institution itself is formed by interacting individuals. A social institution is actually a culturally sanctioned way of performing a certain type of activity or set of a certain type of activity. The individual participates in the institution through the mechanism of social status46.

J. Bernard and L. Thompson interpret an institution as a set of norms and patterns of behavior. It is a complex configuration of customs, traditions, beliefs, attitudes, regulations and laws that have a specific purpose and perform specific functions 2. Institutions are a set of norms or rules of behavior that apply only to people.

In modern Russian sociological literature, the concept of a social institution is also given a central place. A social institution is defined as the main component of the social structure of society, integrating and coordinating many individual actions of people, organizing social relations in certain spheres of public life 3. According to

S. S. Frolov, “a social institution is an organized system of connections and social norms that unites significant social values ​​and procedures that satisfy the basic needs of society” 4. According to M. S. Komarov, social institutions are “value-normative complexes , through which people’s actions in vital areas - economics, politics, culture, family, etc. - are directed and controlled.” 47.

If we summarize all the variety of approaches outlined above, then a social institution is:

role system, which also includes norms and statuses;

?

a set of customs, traditions and rules of behavior;

?

formal and informal organization; ?

a set of norms and institutions regulating a certain area of ​​public relations;

?

Indeed, scientists often define culture precisely as the form and result of adaptation to the environment. According to Kees J. Hamelink, culture is the sum of all human efforts aimed at mastering the environment and creating the necessary material and intangible means for this. Sociologists say that the institutions typical of a given society reflect the cultural makeup of that society. Institutions are as different from each other as cultures. For example, the institution of marriage is different among different nations. It rests on original rites and ceremonies, norms and rules of behavior.

Communication institutions are part of cultural institutions. They are the organs through which society, through social structures, produces and distributes information expressed in symbols. Moreover, these institutions themselves are the result of society’s efforts aimed at adapting to the environment. Communication institutions are the main source of knowledge about accumulated experience expressed in symbols 48.

Social institutions help solve vital problems for a large number of people who turn to them. For example, millions of people, having fallen in love, resort to the help of the institution of marriage and family, and when they fall ill, they resort to health care institutions, etc. Worrying

about establishing legal order in society, they create the state, government, courts, police, bar, etc.

Institutions, at the same time, act as instruments of social control, since, thanks to their normative order, they stimulate people to obey and be disciplined. Therefore, an institution is understood as a set of norms and patterns of behavior.

At the dawn of history, promiscuity—promiscuous sexual relations—dominated in the human herd. He threatened the human race with genetic degeneration. Gradually, such relationships began to be limited by prohibitions. The first prohibition is the prohibition of incest. It prohibited sexual relations between blood relatives, say mother and son, brother and sister. Essentially, this is the first and most important type of social norms in history. Later other norms appeared. Humanity has learned to survive and adapt to life by organizing relationships using norms. This is how perhaps the earliest social institution arose among people - the institution of family and marriage. Passed on from generation to generation, norms of family and marital behavior, like other institutional norms, became a collective habit, custom, and tradition. They directed the way of life and way of thinking of people in a certain direction. Violators of these customs and traditions (in the language of sociology - deviants) faced severe punishment (sanctions).

The process of formation and development of social institutions is called institutionalization. Institutionalization is the development, definition and consolidation of social norms, rules, statuses and roles, bringing them into a system that is capable of satisfying some social need. In addition, institutionalization includes the internalization by members of society of these norms and statuses, that is, the transfer of external requirements to the level of the internal value system. Institutionalization is the replacement of spontaneous and experimental behavior with predictable behavior that is expected, modeled, and regulated4.

Thus, the institutionalization of any science, say sociology, presupposes the development of certain rules of communication between scientists, the creation of a common terminological dictionary for them, without which effective communication is impossible. In addition, this process involves the publication of state standards and regulations, the creation of research institutes, bureaus, services and laboratories (with their own charters), the opening of relevant faculties, departments, departments and courses at universities, colleges and schools for the training of professional specialists, the publication of journals, monographs and textbooks, etc. If a circle of like-minded people, having launched a wide campaign, attracted many supporters seeking progressive changes in society, and then became legalized according to the established procedure, then they talk about the institutionalization of a specific political party.

Thus, social institutions appear in society when large previously unplanned products of social life are transformed into completely planned mechanisms of activity of a group of people.

Without institutionalization, modern society cannot exist. Thanks to it, disorderly quarrels and fights turn into highly formalized sports matches, disordered sex life into the institutions of family and marriage, spontaneous protest movements into mass political parties. Institutions act as the pillars of social order, the pillars on which the social world rests.

Institutionalization is the ascent, strengthening of social practice to the level of an institution, legislative registration of status, its “overgrowth” with organizational infrastructure and material resources (for example, departments, personnel, journals, etc.).

Institutionalization is opposed by an institutional crisis - a reverse process characterized by a decline in the authority of a given institution, for example the family, and a decrease in trust in it. The cause of the crisis is the inability of this institution to effectively perform its main functions, for example, the educational institution - to transfer the knowledge accumulated by society to people, the health institution - to treat people, the family institution - to strengthen the bonds of marriage. Institutional norms exist, they are proclaimed, but are not observed by anyone. The consequence of such a crisis is a redistribution of the functions of institutions, that is, shifting them “to the shoulders” of others. For example, in the mid-80s, a crisis emerged in our country in secondary school; it began to poorly prepare graduates for university; tutors immediately appeared - an institution of intermediaries between applicants and the university. The crisis of political institutions is manifested in a decrease in public confidence in them. It is known that in transforming societies there is a growing mass distrust of citizens towards political parties and civil institutions in general. More than two-thirds of those surveyed in December 1998 did not trust virtually any institution. 4 Two significant trends began to emerge: general political apathy and withdrawal from political life, on the one hand, and the increasing ability of political parties to attract citizens to their side through undemocratic methods, on the other. .

An institutional crisis reveals some problems in the functioning mechanism of an institution and helps to get rid of them, and as a result, to better adapt to a changing reality. Without crises there is no development of an institution, just as there is no human life without illness. The Institute of Education in the United States experienced serious crises three times - in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when the country, in pursuit of countries that had gone ahead (first the USSR, and later Japan), tried to improve the level of academic knowledge of schoolchildren. The United States has not yet achieved its goal, and, nevertheless, has achieved a lot, since young people from all countries go to receive an American education, which is considered very prestigious.

In sociology, two processes are distinguished - the institution of norms (instituting a set of norms) and their institutionalization (institutionalizing). The institution of norms is understood as the formal adoption by parliament or other legislative body of new norms, regardless of how the population views them 49. Norms cannot be considered institutionalized until the majority of people accept them, and they, in turn, become something generally accepted and taken for granted. This acceptance is accomplished, as we mentioned, through internalization.

Since foreign, and after them, domestic sociologists adhere to different definitions of a social institution, it is quite natural that they have different understandings of its internal structure, that is, a functionally interconnected system of supporting elements. Some people believe that the main thing in a social institution are statuses and roles, others are sure that we should talk primarily about the system of norms and regulations, others highlight the importance of models and patterns of behavior regulated by the mechanism of social control, etc. Despite a variety of points of view, all of them are essentially correct, because they simply represent different visions of the same thing. V.I. Lenin also wrote that depending on how you use a glass, it can be considered a vessel for water, a weapon of attack, a tool for catching flies, etc.

So it is in sociology. For example, J. Bernard and L. Thompson 50 identify such elements of a social institution as: ?

goals and objectives that relate to the explicit functions of the institution; ?

patterns, or rules, of behavior; ?

symbolic features; ?

utilitarian features; ?

oral and written traditions.

G. Landberg, S. Schrag and O. Largen, revealing the element-by-element structure of a social institution, closely connect it with the functions performed by the institution (Table 2).

According to S.S. Frolov, it is more correct to talk not about the elements included in the structure of an institution, but about certain institutional features, i.e., features and properties common to a variety of institutions. There are five of them: ?

attitudes and patterns of behavior (for example, affection, loyalty, responsibility and respect in the family, obedience, loyalty and subordination in the state); ?

symbolic cultural signs (wedding ring, flag, coat of arms, cross, icons, etc.); ?

utilitarian cultural features (home for the family, public buildings for the state, shops and factories for production, classrooms and libraries for education, temples for religion); ?

oral and written code (prohibitions, legal guarantees, laws, rules); ?

ideology (romantic love in the family, democracy in the state, free trade in the economy, academic freedom in education, Orthodoxy or Catholicism in religion) 51.

table 2

Functions and structural elements of the main institutions of society 1 Functions Institutions Basic

roles Physical

features Symbolic

traits Caring for, nursing and raising children Family

marriage father

baby house

ring setting

engagement

contract Mining

housing more economical

Chinese employer

worker

buyer

seller factory

legislators

rights public buildings and places flag

Party Assistance

conciliar

relations

and installations,

deepening

faith Religious

new pastor

parishioner cathedral

church cross

Bible Socialization of people, familiarization with basic values ​​and practices Education teacher

student school

college diploma

To the above list of institutional features, it is necessary to add a few more that describe not what is hidden inside institutions, but what is outside. More precisely, how a person perceives them. P. and B. Bergers, relying on the theory of social facts of E. Durkheim and based on the fact that social institutions should be considered the most important social facts, derived a number of basic social characteristics that they should have 1. Let us briefly consider these characteristics.

1.

Institutions are perceived by individuals as external reality. In other words, an institution for any individual person is something external, existing separately from the reality of the thoughts, feelings or fantasies of the individual himself. According to this characteristic, the institution has similarities with other entities of external reality - even trees, tables and telephones - each of which is located outside the individual. He cannot, for example, wish the tree to disappear. The same applies to the institute.

Institutions have coercive power. To some extent, this characteristic is implied by the previous two: the fundamental power of an institution over the individual consists precisely in the fact that the institution exists objectively and the individual cannot wish it to disappear at his will or whim. Whether we like it or not, voluntarily or against our wishes, consciously or unconsciously, we are still forced to follow the instructions and rules that make up the content of almost any of the social institutions within which our lives take place. Otherwise, negative sanctions may occur.

4.

Institutions have moral authority. Institutions do not simply maintain themselves through coercive force. They proclaim their right to legitimation - that is, they reserve the right not only to punish the offender in some way, but also to impose moral censure on him. Of course, institutions vary in the degree of their moral force. These variations are usually expressed in the degree of punishment imposed on the offender. In extreme cases, the state can take his life; neighbors or co-workers may boycott him. In both cases, the punishment is accompanied by a sense of indignant justice among those members of society who are involved in it.